Warner Bros. Discovery's stock slides after the NBA rejects its Amazon match, Ozy Media drops its lawsuit against Semafor boss Ben Smith, Fox News Media gets a new general counsel, the Associated Press scrubs its website of a J.D. Vance fact-check, Elon Musk's transgender daughter fires back at him, OpenAI teases its A.I.-infused search engine, Russia throttles YouTube, "Deadpool & Wolverine" post staggering preview numbers, Hulu renews "The Kardashians," and so much more. But first, the A1.

Let the A.I. Games Begin

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The human athletes won't be the only ones closely watched when the 2024 Olympic Games get underway this weekend.

Both the International Olympics Committee and U.S. broadcast partner NBC plan to harness the power of artificial intelligence and infuse the summer contests with the rapidly advancing technology, which will be evident in ways both on and off camera.

Most notably, NBC will create a daily highlight reel available to its Peacock subscribers that features the voice of legendary announcer Al Michaels. Michaels, however, will not be in a sports booth in Paris offering his trademark sports commentary. Instead, NBC said it had trained its A.I. on old video clips of Michaels. With his permission, the broadcaster will harness the technology to produce video packages using his iconic voice. 

"When I was approached about this, I was skeptical but obviously curious," Michaels said in a statement. "Then I saw a demonstration detailing what they had in mind. I said, 'I’m in.'"

The IOC will also use A.I. to enhance its own video offerings. The committee said this week the technology will help power a multicam replay that will offer viewers "ground-breaking visuals such as athlete tracking, intelligent stroboscopic analysis, and enhanced data graphics."

Behind the scenes, A.I. will also be used in new and inventive ways at the summer games. The IOC said it had identified "over 180 potential use cases" for the technology and that it will now work to "prioritize these opportunities to maximize their impact."

One such use case is scanning social media platforms to identify potentially abusive material and protect athletes against cyber abuse. Another envisions the technology helping judges referee contests, though it's unclear whether that will be implemented during this year's games.

Regardless, the emphasis on deploying A.I. at the Olympics is the latest example of how the technology is being rapidly implemented across various industries, including the sports world. Not only is A.I. being used to improve existing products, but it is also being exploited to launch new features. The technology put on display at the Olympics is sure to pop up in other sporting contests in the near future, upending the way everything from highlights are created to how performances are judged. 

"Today, we are not just envisioning the future; we're actively creating it," IOC member Sarah Walker acknowledged in a statement this week. "We are using the transformative power of artificial intelligence to redefine the landscape of sports and bring the Olympic Movement into a new era."

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On the Sidelines: It wasn't the best day on Wall Street for Warner Bros. Discovery. The David Zaslav-led company's already not-so-healthy stock fell by about 6%, ending Thursday at $7.99 a share, after news the NBA had rejected its attempt to match Amazon's $1.8 billion per year bid to air games. As a result, Macquarie downgraded the media conglomerate's stock from outperform to neutral, with analysts writing, "Losing these key rights means it now loses a core content asset for both its linear networks and its Max streaming service." The Macquarie analysts added, "Max's sports offering will now be weaker without the NBA." The Wrap's Lucas Manfredi has more.

► What is going on here? "The NBA is being sued by Warner Bros. Discovery," CNBC's David Faber reported on-air Thursday morning. As we reported in the previous edition of this newsletter, a lawsuit from the NBA's longtime broadcast partner is likely as it attempts a buzzer-beating shot at matching Amazon's bid. But has WBD actually filed a complaint in court against the league? Hours after Faber went to air with what would be a notable scoop, not a single other outlet confirmed such a lawsuit has been filed. A spokesperson for WBD ignored repeated requests for comment. A spokesperson for CNBC told me the outlet stands by its reporting.

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AP's Fact-Check Failure: The Associated Press on Thursday deleted a story that it had published the day before fact-checking ridiculous online claims that J.D. Vance wrote in his 2016 memoir about having sex with a couch. The story, which was entirely scrubbed from the AP's website, "didn't go through our standard editing process," a spokesperson for the wire service told me. The spokesperson added that the AP was "looking into" how the article was published and that the story did not go out on its wire service where it would have been available to its customers. Mediaite's David Gilmour has more.

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The Search Showdown: Sam Altman is making it clear that he has his sights set on Google. The tech mogul's OpenAI on Thursday announced it is testing SearchGPT, a search engine powered by the company's powerful A.I. technology. When released, the search engine will act similar to ChatGPT, but it will provide users with real-time information. "We believe that by enhancing the conversational capabilities of our models with real-time information from the web, finding what you’re looking for can be faster and easier," OpenAI said. The company, which said it had partnered with publishers to build the tool after striking licensing deals over the last 12 months, added that it will draw its information and provide links to "clear and relevant sources." CNN's Clare Duffy has more.

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'Deadpool' Gets Deployed: The summer box office is about to get another shot in the arm. Marvel's "Deadpool & Wolverine" is set to become the biggest R-rated film opening of all time as the superhero flick crashes into theaters. Box Office Pro projected that the film could be on track to deliver as much as $200 million at the domestic box office. In opening previews, the Marvel flick is headed for a $35 million to $40 million haul, Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro reported Thursday evening. Per D'Alessandro, "Deadpool" could soar past $40 million. Those figures would put the movie in a rare class, putting it in the top ten biggest previews of all time. More from D'Alessandro here.

► In addition to the hype the film has generated on its own, Taylor Swift is also now weighing in, urging her sizable fan base to head to the theaters for the film. Swift, friends with actor Ryan Reynolds, even posted a link where her fans can purchase tickets. The Wrap's Lauren Cahoone has more.